Gordon wins quarterly vote
Jeff Gordon, off to a fast start in the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, has won the first-quarter voting in the 2009 Driver of the Year balloting.
The four-time Cup champion, the only four-time winner of the driver of the year award, ended a 47-race winless string earlier this month at Texas and led the series points last week when the panel of motorsports writers and broadcasters cast their votes.
Gordon, who slipped to second in the standings after crashing and finishing 37th last Sunday at Talladega, narrowly beat fellow NASCAR star Kyle Busch 111-107 in the first-quarter balloting.
"We've had a strong start to the season and it was nice to get that win in Texas," Gordon said. "While it's the Driver of the Year Award, the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet team gets a lot of the credit. They have given me strong cars every weekend and the pit crew has been solid."
Gordon received eight of 18 first-place ballots and was on every ballot, while Busch, who has won races in Cup, Nationwide and trucks this season, got seven first-place vote.
Ron Capps, driving for Don Schumacher in the NHRA drag racing series, had one first-place vote and was third in the voting with 66 points, while sprint car racer Donnie Schatz and longtime Cup star Mark Martin each had the other two first-place votes.
A total of 17 drivers scored points in the first-quarter voting.
A top driver is picked for each quarter of the racing season and the panel then picks an overall winner.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
